Sergei Skripal: MI6 handler’s network of dissidents

The handler was said to have had close links to Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire given asylum in Britain who was found deadCARL COURT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The MI6 officer who had extensive dealings with Sergei Skripal had close links to other exiled Russians, it was claimed yesterday.

Mr Skripal, 66, met one of his former MI6 handlers every month in a Salisbury restaurant. The pair were said to have spoken in English and Russian in the Côte Brasserie, raising the question of whether Mr Skripal, who was jailed for passing Russian secrets to MI6 but later given refuge in the UK in a spy swap, was involved in active intelligence work.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the same handler had close links to Boris Berezovsky, the exiled billionaire given asylum in the UK who was found dead in 2013, and Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB officer turned dissident who was…

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